The latest news on Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls Online is that it has been developed in conjunction with Zenimax. A gameplay trailer was released yesterday, which has been sure to shake the foundations of the MMO worlds, if all claims appear to be true. The game looks solid and a lot of fun for fans of the series, and for new players as well. No information on pricing, but a closed beta is scheduled for 2013 as well as a general release. In The Elder Scrolls Online, unlike Skyrim, you will be able to travel to all of the areas of Tamriel once again. The last time you were able to do this was in The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Daggerfall. Both games used primitive graphics, but were unbelievable for the time.
If successful, the game should send a much needed jolt into the MMO game worlds, which have, as of late, been dominated by free to play games, or games that failed in a regular monthly subscription fee and then became free to play (Star Trek Online comes to mind). The general way that the MMOs make money in free to play games is usually a "pay to get stuff" model of gaming. If you want the latest ship, battle cruiser, or ultimate Excalibur sword, you need to lay down a hefty wad of cash. Some have even resorted to charging money for extra character slots
Outside of that, World of Warcraft still remains the dominant MMORPG in the industry, with older games like Ultima Online and Everquest still faintly in the distance. For the latter games, some might consider them stagnant worlds, as not much has become of them since World of Warcraft took over the universe. Other major competitors to World of Warcraft have included Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars Online, a bunch of MMO's from Asia, and so forth.
Now, check out the new video released for The Elder Scrolls Online, which will take place 1,000 years before Skyrim, and be based on 20 years of Elder Scrolls lore! And some additional videos on the game from prior weeks and months:
And some older information...
